Bashar Masri was said to have used USAID to funnel funds to Hamas.
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
Palestinian billionaire Bashar Masri resigned from his post at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government after a lawsuit alleged he funded Hamas rocket launchers and tunnel infrastructure.
Masri left his position on Harvard’s dean’s council after he was said to have used the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Gaza development projects to funnel funds to Hamas.
Following Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021, Masri funded the Gaza Industrial Estate.
The lawsuit was undertaken by US law firms Osen LLC, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, Stein Mitchell Beato & Missner LLP and Motley Rice LLC on behalf of 200 relatives of the October 7, 2023, victims of the Hamas onslaught on Israel.
The lawsuit alleges that Masri knowingly collaborated with Hamas in developing commercial properties in Gaza that concealed and supplied electricity to the group’s extensive and militarized tunnel system. It seeks damages under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
A Kennedy School of Government spokesman told the New York Post newspaper that the lawsuit “raises serious allegations that should be vetted and addressed through the legal process.”
Masri’s office denied the allegations and called them “baseless.”
According to Israeli media reports, Masri also reportedly provided guidance and private jet travel to Adam Boehler, the former nominee of US President Donald Trump for special presidential envoy for hostage affairs and current special envoy with the US State Department, during Boehler’s direct negotiations with Hamas in March.
As chairman of the Palestine Development & Investment Company, Masri secured agreements to build and manage hotels, an industrial park, and other ventures in Gaza, including deals made directly with Hamas officials, according to the lawsuit and information published on the company’s website.
Among these projects was the Al Mashtal Hotel, which the Israel Defense Forces identified in 2014 as a Hamas rocket launch site.
The lawsuit claims Masri’s company renovated the hotel under a contract with a construction firm linked to Hamas.
